Book Haul | Sad & Popular Contemporary Literature 🍷
The first book haul in this blog is finally here 🙌 This is a special haul for me because I paid for all those books with my own money from my first 'serious/adult' job. It was hard to choose just a few books out of all the novels, poetry collections and plays I have on my wish list. However, once I saw the images of the books below on the online bookstore, I couldn't stop myself. If you have read any of the books below, please tell me if you think that it was a good purchase or not in the comments.
I should note that the summaries are taken from the blurbs at the back cover. And without further ado, let me show you the new additions to my book collection.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh (2018)
Young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for by her inheritance: our narrator has many of the advantages of life. But there is a vacuum at the heart of things, and it isn't just the loss of her parents. Or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her. Or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend.
It's the year 2000 in the world's greatest city, aglitter with wealth and possibility.
What could be so terribly wrong?
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (2018)
When the Greek Queen Helen is kidnapped by Trojans, the Greeks sail in pursuit, besieging the city of Troy. Trapped in the Greek soldiers' camp is another captured queen, Briseis. Condemned to be bed-slave to Achilles, the man who butchered her family, she becomes a pawn in a menacing game between bored and frustrated warriors. In the centuries after this most famous war, history will write her off, a footnote in a bloody story scripted by vengeful men - but Briseis has a very different tale to tell …
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (2014)
Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - joggers, neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly and shop assistants who talk in code.
But isn't it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so?
In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible …
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (2019)
This is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born. It tells of Vietnam, of the lasting impact of war, and of his family's struggle to forge a new future. And it serves as a doorway into parts of Little Dog's life his mother has never known - episodes of bewilderment, fear and passion - all the while moving closer to an unforgettable revelation.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (2015)
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself; by midlife a terrifyingly talented lawyer yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by a degree of trauma that he fears he will not only be unable to overcome - but that will define his life forever.
The Third Wedding Wreath by Costas Taktsis (1962)
A relentless and compassionate exposure of the female psyche, the book unfolds in the years before and after World War II through the flowing personal narrative of two women: Ekavi and Nina, who speak in a direct and everyday language about their life and experiences.
And you just reached the end of the haul. If you are interested in finding out the books that make up my book collection, click on my Bookshelf Tour.
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